Page:Eliot - Daniel Deronda, vol. I, 1876.djvu/139

 was the more remarkable for his previous paleness. Then he said, nervously—

"I am anxious to know—I should like to go or send at once to Offendene—but she rides so well, and I think she would keep up—there would most likely be many round her."

"I suppose it was she who led you on, eh?" said Mr Gascoigne, laying down his pen, leaning back in his chair, and looking at Rex with more marked examination.

"It was natural for her to want to go; she didn’t intend it beforehand—she was led away by the spirit of the thing. And of course I went when she went."

Mr Gascoigne left a brief interval of silence, and then said with quiet irony, "But now you observe, young gentleman, that you are not furnished with a horse which will enable you to play the squire to your cousin. You must give up that amusement. You have spoiled my nag’ for me, and that is enough mischief for one vacation. I shall beg you to get ready to start for Southampton tomorrow and join Stillfox, till you go up to Oxford with him. That will be good for your bruises as well as your studies."

Poor Rex felt his heart swelling and comporting itself as if it had been no better than a girl’s.